


To Make a Memory

by hisboywriter



Category: Young Avengers
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-04
Updated: 2013-02-04
Packaged: 2017-11-28 04:25:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/670243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hisboywriter/pseuds/hisboywriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Teddy's first birthday after his mother's death.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Make a Memory

**-X-**

**~**

_“Happy birthday!”  Teddy’s mother said and smiled so hard he had thought her face would get suck._

_**~** _

Teddy awoke to his first birthday without his mother.

And everything ached.

A weight deep in his core kept him sprawled on his back, staring at the ceiling as memories possessed him. Past birthdays replayed before him, not one missing his mother’s vibrant smile and her insistence to sing him ‘Happy Birthday’ no matter how old he was. They were treasures now, no longer memories he could build upon with her help, and he yearned to relive them all once more in her company.

With the visions of her mounting, making his head heavy, he sighed in an effort to brace himself for the day.  He had slept little, sleep broken by the impending reality that the following morning his mother would not surprise him with breakfast and her proud eyes. He used to sleep little the nights before his birthday in anticipation and now he slept poorly for a different reason.

Teddy resisted the urge to groan and managed to crane his neck to face the expanse of his and Tommy’s room—and quickly noted the speedster was not in bed, blankets drawn up. Teddy blinked at the empty space and assumed his roommate had stayed the night with Kate.

Then, even more curious, was the bustle of noise that echoed from down the hallway. It had been a muffled burst of noise, but it was enough to have Teddy sit up in his bed. It was early, even for his standards, and he was almost always the first to rise on a Saturday morning.

Suspicion prickled in the back of his mind, hauling his legs off the bed and carrying him to the bathroom for a quick wash up. He debated changing into something that wasn’t pajama bottoms and his Captain America shirt, but when he heard clattering from below, he was treading out.

The hallway was bare, void of most sound, and all of the doors to the others’ rooms were shut. Mindful of how early it was, he skulked down the stairs, the only sound coming from the occasional creaking floorboard, a distant car wail, and the sounds from what he now suspected to be the kitchen.

And, indeed, the kitchen was the battlefield of the commotion. Amid the clanging and rustle were two familiar, young voices speaking in hushed tones.

“No, you have to crack the eggs in the bowl first.”

“I want to finish cooking the eggs though.”

“You’re too short for that. Besides, you’ll get burned.”

“I would not!”

“Be quiet. You’re going to wake him up. You can help squeeze the waffle iron, alright?”

A grumble and puff of forced out air. “Fine.”

Teddy’s eyebrow rose as he stepped away from the hallway entrance and spotted Jacob and Isaac unleashing bedlam in the kitchen. Well, Isaac more than Jacob by the way the stubby hands mishandled egg shells, causing the white shards of casing to scatter all over the counter.

“Here, give me that—“

“I can do it, Jacob. Mom said I could help with Teddy’s breakfast too.”

Teddy lingered in the doorway, glued stiff at the words, until a smile broke out of him as the scene unfolded before his eyes.

“Good morning,” he said.

Isaac gasped and whirled around, resulting in an egg yolk splattering to the ground. Jacob tensed, casting a glance back over his shoulder from where he stood by the stove.

“Um,” Isaac said and threw his arms up, egg shells meeting their doom against a cabinet, “you can’t see!”

Teddy blinked at the frantic pitch in the youngest Kaplan’s voice. “Erm, sorry?”

“Out!” Isaac rushed forward, dirty paws and all, and ushered Teddy out of the doorway. “It’s a surprise! Go sit over there. Out, out!”

“He already saw, Isaac.”

“No, he can’t be in the kitchen today,” Isaac persisted, frowning and furrowing his eyebrows. “Sit, sit. We’ll be there in a sec.”

Teddy continued smiling and maneuvered back as Isaac intended, more to avoid his grimy hands than anything else. “It’s alright, I’ll go. I’ll just wait at the table, okay?”

Isaac’s glower fell and he nodded.

Abiding by his promise, Teddy settled into a chair, though he tried to peek up to see if he could catch glimpses of how soon the boys would be done. Didn’t seem like long by the increased volume of chaos and bickering. When he couldn’t see anything, he resigned to sit there, trying not to feel awkward at all about how the morning had unraveled differently from what he expected. The most striking notice was that it was Jacob and Isaac, of all people, preparing what he supposed was his breakfast.

But that realization had barely begun to register with him just as Isaac and Jacob slipped out of the kitchen, bearing plates and a drink. Isaac balanced the juice in both hands, keeping it at eye level with the pride of a kid who poured the drink himself. He placed it in front of Teddy and gave it a gentle shove so Jacob could set two plates down, one holding an omelet with all the veggies Teddy preferred, and the other  brandishing three waffles.

On the omelet’s face, in sloppy ketchup, read: HAPPY BDAY TEDDY

“There’s more coming,” Jacob said. “We know you eat seconds usually.”

Teddy ogled the meal, plump and scrumptious even if things were a little lopsided and there was a bit too much syrup dripping off his waffles.

“Oh, and we’re making dinner too,” Isaac said, preening the longer Teddy stared.

It was really for him, a birthday breakfast created by the labor of a couple of kids who had no say in him having barged in and become a daily aspect in their lives. And it smelled wonderful. His breakfast. Just for him. Even seconds.

A laugh, a deep, grateful thing, rushed out of him, his stomach somersaulting.

“I…wow, you guys,” he said, lifting his face to share his gratitude in a smile. “I can’t believe you did this. Just for me?”

Jacob glanced away, shrugging one shoulder while Isaac smiled and said, “But there’s more!”

“Isaac—“

“More?” Teddy studied each of them, interest piqued.

“After you eat,” Jacob said, but was interrupted by his younger brother catapulting past him and into the hallway. “Isaac!”

Teddy looked after where his small form vanished and soon heard, then saw, Isaac scurrying back with a large gift teetering in his palms, which were thankfully wiped clean now.

Jacob sighed and rounded on him. “What about what we talked about?”

Isaac frowned up at him and came around Teddy’s other side, planting the gift on the table with a loud smack. “It’s Teddy’s birthday. He’s allowed to get what he wants,” he retorted and nudged the object closer. “Come on, come on. Open it. This is from me, Jacob, and Billy.”

Billy? Teddy considered asking if he was still sleeping, if he was unaware of the grand feat his brothers had done so early in the morning, but when Jacob and Isaac eyed him with what he thought were apprehensive looks, he went reaching for the gift. And if his hand-grabbing was a little zealous, what of it?

With Jacob’s assistance, Teddy set the food to the side temporarily and smoothed his hand over the rectangular-shaped item. The wrapping consisted doodles of The Avengers, so Teddy employed care when he unwrapped it, of course, his own apprehension brewing with each crinkle the paper made.

At last, and just before Isaac was probably going to shred the remaining wrapping off, a scrapbook greeted him with his full name lining its border, each thick letter green. In the center were four corner flaps, as though a piece of paper, a photograph maybe, was meant to fit there.

“A scrapbook,” he said, stroking the leather cover. It felt wonderful against his fingers. “I don’t think I’ve ever gotten one before.”

“Open it!” Isaac was already reaching for the cover.

Heart fluttering, Teddy did.

And then said heart collapsed into his stomach as a photo of his mother smiled at me.

“Mom,” he said, as though she might return his greeting.

She didn’t.

His mother, there, smiling at the camera in all her professional glory. Teddy instantly recognized it as the photograph that went along with her title as a real-estate agent. It was one of his favorite photos of her, though she was always photogenic.

He swallowed, a small part of him taking note of the attention to details that had been crafted around her image, the design, the affection her name had been transcribed in. A bigger part of him clung to her smile and saw nothing else.

“She was pretty,” he heard Isaac said close by, voice low.

Teddy pulled out of the book and saw the soft look in the boy’s eyes.

“She was nice too,” he added, lips jutting out.

“Thanks,” Teddy whispered, because he couldn’t bring himself to say more. He saw Jacob shift in the periphery of his vision and he paid little mind to it, the image of his mother coaxing him back.

Pouring effort into the gesture, he flipped the page over, and stared as more images of his mother expanded over the next two pages. There was one of her with Mrs. Kaplan at a dinner they had all attended for the psychiatrist’s birthday. Another of his mother with her arm wrapped around Teddy at the same dinner, and another with her in mid-laugh.

Only a few scattered the second page, some he recognized from photos that he had salvaged from his home. There was one in particular that struck his heart: he was in a suit, her body leaning against his own and his attention was not on the camera, but on her.

**~**

_“Mom, my tie’s fine.”_

_“It’s your first dance,” she reminded him for the third time, “I just want to be sure.”_

_“It’s not a big deal.”_

_She narrowed an eye at him and then dragged her fingertips through his slicked hair. “It is too, Theodore Altman. You’re going to look back on this day and look at it fondly.”_

_Teddy cringed as she primped him up. “I don’t even really like her that much. She’s Greg’s date’s cousin,” he reminded her for the third time._

_Leaning back, she gave him a knowing smile that almost made him blush. “That doesn’t mean you can’t have fun, right? We make the best of all our situations. Maybe next time you can go with a girl you like more…or a boy, either way.”_

_“Mom!”_

_“Oh, the camera,” she exclaimed and pried off him before he knew it. “We have to take a picture. Oh, don’t give me that look. I saw that. It’s nice that we get to capture a moment like this. Give me a moment.”_

_Teddy willed away his flustered state from her earlier comment and cleared his throat as she returned, the camera perched on the mantel. She leaned right into him, her hand resting on his chest as though she was proud to proclaim this strapping young lad here was her jewel._

_“Get ready,” she said, straightening._

_Teddy glanced at her as he looped his own arm around her._

_He smiled, forgetting the camera would go off in that instant._

**~**

“Mom,” he exhaled, shaking his head.

It was one of few pictures she had taken with herself in it, having always been insistent on capturing moments of her son, and now Teddy wondered if it was partly born from a fear that she might not always be there for him.

At his side, he felt Isaac give his bicep a hug, giving him the will to pass her photos and move onto the next page. As he did, Isaac ducked under his arm, nestled in the crook of his elbow and pointed at the photographs.

“It’s all of us,” he said.

Teddy’s chest ballooned, weight lifting off him in layers as he scanned the array of photographs. The Kaplans, Jacob at his bar mitzvah, Billy squished between Eli and Cas, Kate mimicking a supermodel pose,  a rare scene of Tommy and Billy grinning at the camera with their arms draped over each other’s shoulders, another of Tommy in the kitchen with Mr. Kaplan…

More photographs of the same nature lunged at him, all adorned with hand-done crafts, all of them pulling out ever-widening smiles from him. On the following page, there was a blown up image of him, Tommy, and the Kaplans at their first ‘family trip’ at Orlando Florida, just months after Tommy moved in.

Beneath that, an image of Billy, Teddy, Tommy, and the younger Kaplan siblings.

“You guys didn’t even wake me up when you took that,” complained Isaac.

Teddy chuckled because no, they hadn’t.

**~**

_“I can’t believe Isaac fell asleep,” Billy laughed, adjusting the sleeping bundle in his lap. “Who falls asleep watching Fantasmic?”_

_“Isaac,” Jacob said. “He always falls asleep at weird times.”_

_Teddy smirked and glanced around from where they sat on a blanket, watching the herd of people hoofing it slow by slow inch out of Frontierland. “Looks like it’s gonna be a long walk to the entrance. Good thing your parents went on ahead to get the car.”_

_“Yeah, yeah,” Tommy said. He stood in front of them, keeping himself moving by adjusting his pirate hat. “Come on, let’s get going. Maybe we can catch a quick ride on the way out.”_

_“I knew you’d enjoy Disneyland, Tommy,” Teddy said._

_“Hey. Shut up.” Tommy gestured to Isaac. “Should we drag him behind or leave him?”_

_“Tommy.” Billy rolled his eyes and grunted, managing to balance on his feet while cradling Isaac in both arms. “Everyone set? Tommy can you get the blanket.”_

_Tommy snorted but did so even before Jacob and Teddy scrambled off, meanwhile the middle son glimpsed at his sleeping brother._

_Teddy peered at the congestion and then back to Jacob. “Your legs tired from all the walking today?”_

_Jacob glanced at him then at the ground. “I’m fine.”_

_“Because,” Teddy went on, “I mean, there’s a lot of people. Might be easier if you just went on my back.”_

_Jacob lifted his head._

_Over his head, Teddy saw Billy smiling widely. “Just to make sure you don’t get lost in the crowd.”_

_“Oh,” Jacob studied him a moment._

_Teddy crouched, back offered, and sooner than he anticipated, felt a small body crawling on it and smaller hands clasping around his neck. “Alright, up we go,” he said, bracing both of his arms under Jacob’s thighs._

_“Oh, I’m so getting someone to take a picture of this,” Billy said._

_“You better not,” snapped Jacob._

**~**

Teddy laughed, running his fingers over the photo, admiring Isaac’s peaceful face and Jacob’s glower.  “This was so much fun,” he admitted, casting a glance at Jacob, only to find the boy had left.

Before he could question where he went, Isaac took the reins and flipped to the next page. “And then we did a special page for you! Look. I cut these ones out and pasted them by myself.”

Teddy gaped, color creeping up his neck. Photos and newspaper clippings devoted to the Young Avengers, especially a particular green one, littered the next two pages. Many of them were of him caught off guard or ignorant that he had been photographed, and he wondered how they had acquired each of them as much as he wondered if it was a good idea to have his scrapbook filled with his alter ego.

But Isaac was swelling with satisfaction and Teddy didn’t have the heart to say anything other than, “It’s amazing. I can’t believe how much work went into this.”

“This one’s one of my favorites,” said Isaac, tapping his finger at a clipping where a large Cass held a villain upside down while the other five members peppered around her. “But I like that you don’t have the green hair anymore. Looks more like you. Like this.”

His finger dragged over to one of Hulkling in flight, cast in light by the noon sun, making his hair seem that might brighter.

“Thanks, Isaac,” Teddy said, and gave him a light squeeze.

“It was Billy’s idea,” Jacob said, returning with both hands behind his back. “He said you should see what everyone else sees. A hero, no matter where he came from or what bullies said before that. Something like that.”

Teddy stared at him, digesting the words and their significance. His throat felt clogged.

“He said that?”

“Billy says a lot of things about you,” Jacob said, a little too wryly Teddy thought.

At his hardening face, Teddy dropped back into the scrapbook, mind tumbling with what Jacob had said. His gaze paused at the newspaper clipping Isaac had referred to. To its right was one of the original team, just the four of them soon after they had banded together.

And sooner than that was when he had met Billy.

**~**

_Teddy flexed his claws, holding his lips in a fine line as he waited for Billy’s response, the boy who had only shaken his hand with Nathan’s guidance, but what a memorable handshake it had been for Teddy and, really, he shouldn’t be mulling so much over having held this stranger’s hand._

_“So this is it,” he forced himself to say. When unease swirled in his chest and made his stomach flip too hard, he stole a peek at Nathan, who stood behind Billy._

_A small smile graced Nathan’s lips and he nodded his encouragement._

_“I’m,” Teddy began, putting his attention back on Billy, “really strong too. I heal fast. Things like that. I can change to look like people too not just…this.”_

_He swallowed down whatever else he nearly rambled on about, about—well, about something, whatever it was. He tried not to think how undone his articulate self had become in the span of a few blinks in front of this boy, even though he expected Billy, a fellow mutant, to sympathize instead of cringe or cower._

_There was something about the way Billy’s eyes remained wide, lifting and falling as he absorbed the details until, finally, he blinked and gasped, “Wow. You’re amazing.”_

_Teddy couldn’t reply for a moment. “Really?” he said, and wouldn’t know until much later that that was when the flicker of affection toward his fellow teammate breathed life._

_Billy straightened and fiddled with the fabric of his pants, as if he realized he had said that aloud. “Oh, I, well…I’m so new at this mutant thing and you just look…graceful?” The boy grimaced at his choice of word._

_Joy washed over Teddy, feeling like he just grew a few inches, like a thorn in his side had been removed. “I think your powers are pretty cool too, even if you say you’re not use to them,” he said._

_Billy’s shoulders bunched up, head dipped down, eyes watching Teddy through his lashes. Then, maybe Teddy was smiling too much of an idiot because the boy was smiling soon too and extending a hand._

_To his own surprise, Teddy didn’t hesitate to curl his claw around Billy’s hand for the second time that day and shake it._

**~**

Teddy swore if he thought hard enough, he could still feel the pressure of Billy’s hand against his own. He was sporting a constant smile now as he went to the next page, finding it brimming with hearts, both small and large and of various colors, but with no picture.

“Oh,” Isaac said.

“Oh?” Teddy diverted his gaze back to the brothers, unsure what to label their new expressions as.  They were certainly graver, that much he knew. “Is something wrong?”

In a quick move, Isaac wiggled out from his arm and stood beside Jacob, sharing his suspicion—or whatever it was that had them brooding like gargoyles.

“The book,” Jacob said, gesturing with his chin, “it’s not finished.”

“Yeah, I noticed this one has no picture. How come?”

“That’s part of it,” Jacob went on. “It’s about Billy.”

‘Billy’ was said in a tone deeper than was typical for the pre-teen, turning Teddy’s insides into a gnarling mess. “Is something wrong?” he pressed when the two held onto their silence, though Isaac rocked on his heels like he wanted to spit it out.

Then, Isaac took in a gulp of air, prepared to go on what Teddy knew to be a ramble, but Jacob cut him off short by saying, “Mom says you and Billy are friends, and we know you’re teammates too.”

True enough. Teddy nodded and found himself stiff from the weight of Jacob’s stare alone.  He kept his lips in a firm line, feeling a stir within his core, the kind that usually served as the preamble for news you didn’t want to hear.

He could have sworn Jacob’s eyes darkened when he asked, “Are you his boyfriend?”

The stir blew up into a silent whirlwind within Teddy and he reacted too slowly to stop his eyes from going wide or mouth hanging open like a caught fool.

“I…What?”

Jacob didn’t humor him by repeating the question.

Teddy opened his mouth to respond intelligently. Nothing came, the files on his vocabulary wiped out by the one question.

“You are, aren’t you?” Jacob supplied for him.

A metaphorical Teddy in his brain shook him out of his stupor, telling him to answer with a logical reply that wouldn’t…wouldn’t what? These weren’t his children. Would he be overstepping boundaries by admitting it or be worse off for misguiding them with a fib? What would Mr. and Mrs. Kaplan think? What would Billy think?

The kids were still staring at him, Jacob more intently than Isaac, and this was not how an articulate superhero should be acting, sitting there with his arms with a stunned face. Nor was this a fair scenario that should unfold on his birthday of all days.

He opened his mouth to say something, but what came out was, “Erm…”

“Is he? He is?” Isaac was looking at Jacob now, pulling out answers from wherever.

Teddy sucked in a breath, unaware he had been refusing his lungs air. “I…No, that’s not…”

How could a child reduce him to a string of monosyllables, he wondered. “Jacob,” he tried again, this time more in the tone his own mother use to use on him. “That’s a bit of a personal question—“

“We’re not dumb,” Jacob interjected, and before Teddy could insist that’s not what he meant, he went on, “and I know you are his boyfriend. Isaac doesn’t get it as much as I do—“

“Hey!”

“—but we still do,” Jacob continued. “Little things you do. Or he does.”

Flabbergasted didn’t begin to capture the reactions going off inside of him as Jacob spoke. Surprised, yes, though not so much that the kids had fixed in on the clues. What was more surprising was that not that they had formulated a theory, but they had thrown it in Teddy’s face.

There were other feelings reeling in there, none of which he could hold onto long enough before the next one swarmed around him, resulting in him holding a staring match with the young Kaplans before he, inevitably, had to say something.

“I,” he trailed off, filled his lungs, and released his intentions to lie on the exhale. “Yeah,” he admitted, a tingle working up his spine as he said it. “It’s, ah, that’s right. We’re together.”

His heart sank when Jacob’s shoulders rose with accumulated tension and Isaac looked about ready to lose his eyes to the floor.

“Look,” Teddy added, raising both hands in defense, the book resting on his lap, “I wasn’t trying to hide it from you and…I don’t know if this makes you feel uncomfortable or, well, anything else, but I’m not going to lie. You’re smart. Yes. I just want you to know right away I really don’t mean to—“

Jacob ignored him and said, “Our parents know.”

Teddy confirmed that with a nod, lowering his hands. He was grateful he was already sitting; he needed the stability.

“Does Tommy?”

Another nod. “But—“

“Okay, get the stuff, Isaac,” Jacob said.

Isaac bounded off before Teddy could inquire further. He made to speak, and quickly shut up when Jacob approached and brought his hands forward. In them was a large photograph Teddy couldn’t quite make out until it was held out to him.

It was a photograph of Billy and Teddy. Recent, at that, from one of his basketball games where the team won a state championship. Testament to that was his uniform and the court stretched out behind them, and Billy pressing against him with a smile that could shine a building’s worth of electricity—clearly he didn’t mind Teddy had just been sprinting and spinning out of opponents’ hands for over an hour.

Teddy didn’t think he had seen himself grinning so impressively.

“This is…?”

“It’s going to go here,” Jacob explained, sneaking furtive glances at Teddy. “It’s…we weren’t sure, but,” he trailed off into a shrug. “Billy doesn’t know we added it.”

“It’s a page for me and Billy?” Teddy parroted, thinking he couldn’t get more stunned.

“At first, when I began to think you two were…together, I didn’t really like it,” Jacob continued, as if Teddy hadn’t spoken. His eyes lingered on the photograph. “But I guessed it was just because of a lot of small reasons that didn’t make sense.”

“Jacob…”

Those eyes, so similar to Billy in many expressions, met his. “Billy hasn’t smiled this much in pictures in a long time. Isaac was too little to remember when he’d come home with a bruise. It’s not a big deal. If you make him happy then…that’s good. That’s what Mom always says and I guess it’s true, even if he annoys me sometimes.”

Teddy watched him, bathed in his words.

“And,” Jacob added, hesitant, “if it had to be anyone, I’m…glad it’s you.”

Fueled by the words, the scrapbook, memories, Teddy dared to reach out and rest his hand between the boy’s shoulder-blades. “Thank you, Jacob,” he said. “That means a lot to me. It’s…well, it’s probably one of the best birthday presents I could get.”

That earned him a red face and little shimmy that had his hand shaken off. “It’s a scrapbook. It makes sense you’d have something with Billy in it. That’s all.”

“And,” Teddy said.

“And?”

“Because he’s your brother,” Teddy said, as if it was the most obvious reason.

Jacob sobered up, his unease displaced. “So are you,” he said, as if it was the most obvious thing. “That means you’ll…protect him.”

“He’s tough but I’ll always look after him when you’re not able to. Promise. Wouldn’t want to face your wrath now, right?” Teddy grinned and knew he saw a twitch in the boy’s lips.

That moment Isaac barreled through, wielding craft supplies and a new smile. “I got it,” he declared and halted at the table’s edge to give Teddy a long stare. “Are you a good boyfriend?”

Teddy blinked a few times, grappling with the question.

“Is Billy happy?” Jacob asked.

Isaac whipped his head over to his brother. “Yeah.”

“Then you have your answer. Stop bothering him,” Jacob said and punctuated the demand by shoving the small shoulders.

A scowl reached Isaac’s face and he mumbled something that sounded an awful lot like ‘your face is bothering him’. His enthusiasm renewed itself as he clutched a glue stick and shook it at Teddy, invigorated by a new purpose.

For his part, Teddy was more than willing to aid in the process of completing the page, determining where the picture went, but he let Isaac the honors of slathering the backside with glue before they all smoothed it out in the perfect spot.

Just as they leaned back to appreciate the handy work, the door knob jiggled, preceding the noise of keys jingling and a pair of familiar bickerers.

“I told you they didn’t open until half an hour later.” Tommy.

“Yeah, but you also ran there even after I said not to. You can’t just run off in your civvies all the time, you know?” And the glorious ire that belonged to Billy.

Teddy tilted back in his seat, flashing an apologetic smile at the twins as they scrambled in, Tommy balancing a large box in his arms.

Billy gasped on whatever he was telling the speedster, hooked on the sight of his boyfriend and brothers. “You’re up already,” he blurted out.

“I was being pampered,” Teddy said, waving to the table and all the treats that awaited him. “Though I got distracted from the food with a scrapbook.”

“What? You guys weren’t supposed to show that to him until we opened all the presents!” Billy shrugged out of his coat and dumped a few bags by the couch.

“Too late,” Isaac said, bouncing on his heels. “Teddy loved the scrapbook!”

“Hey,” Tommy greeted, zipping over and lugging the box onto the table.

“Tommy, be careful with that,” Billy scolded, huffing over to Teddy where he could embrace his upper body. “Happy birthday, Teddy.” And a kiss would have followed were it not for the company.

“Yeah, happy birthday,” Tommy said, suddenly at Tommy’s left side, delivering a whop to his shoulder. “I think you’ll appreciate that I woke up extra early to get you a huge birthday cake.”

Teddy chuckled at the groan that left Billy. “Thanks. I really do, actually.”

But Tommy was already diving into something more stimulating: the scrapbook. “Well, what’s this? Aw, look, it’s the two lovebirds.”

“What?” Billy lunged across Teddy’s lap and made to snatch it, and of course failed.

Tommy hummed, standing at the kitchen entrance, flicking through each page. “It’s not bad,” he said, smirking at the youngest Kaplans, “but I think my gift will top it.”

“Tommy!”

Teddy couldn’t help it. He laughed, full of mirth, full of good things he never thought could fill him again since the yawning hole his mother’s death had spawned. And while it was very much there, forever would be, still he felt full watching Billy unleash his all to get the scrapbook back.

“Babies,” Jacob muttered.

Teddy shared a look with him, his elation swelling when Jacob smiled and said, “Happy birthday. Hope you survive it.”

“Me too, but I think I got the best protectors around,” Teddy said.

A mortified cried told the entire block Billy had discovered the page dedicated to Teddy and his ‘special friend’. “Jacob! Isaac!”

Another gush of laughter exploded out of Teddy as Isaac scuttled behind his chair. Jacob shrugged and rearranged the meal, giving the birthday boy easier access to it.

“I can’t believe you two!”

“If it makes you feel better,” Teddy said in their defense, speaking through chuckles, “they don’t seem that upset over the announcement.”

“Why would they?” Tommy said, rushing over and nodding his approval at the two kids. “They’re just another pair of loveydoveys who will get hitched, raise a couple of screaming kids, live happily after and call it a boring life, right?”

“Does that mean you guys kiss and stuff?” Isaac chirped up, putting a hand to his own mouth as though the very idea of kissing anyone besides his parents was grotesque, as if he had forgotten what it entailed to be someone’s boyfriend.

Teddy grinned, unable to help. He swallowed it down and shrugged half-heartedly. “Well—“

“Don’t,” Jacob’s head snapped up at Isaac. “Don’t ask those kinds of questions.”

“You asked him questions.”

“I didn’t ask him if they kiss and stuff.”

“Alright, alright, everyone hush,” Billy’s voice easily overpowered them all, not unlike how Mrs. Kaplan employed her voice to get the household’s attention. “You two,” he pointed at his siblings, “I’ll deal with later. For now, it’s Teddy’s birthday and we have a lot to do before Teddy goes to practice so no more goofing around, got it?”

Practice! Teddy shook his head, realigning his mind and remembered he, indeed, have practice today.

“Are Mom and Dad done getting his team read—“

A collective round of shushing overpowered Isaac’s voice.

Teddy arched a brow at them. “What’s that all about? Don’t tell me you made my team get in on this.”

Billy won him over with a grin. “Don’t worry about it. You have to eat breakfast and then we’re gonna take you to the comic book shop, and then my parents will take us to lunch before you go to practice. Then, who knows.”

Teddy couldn’t deny the prospect of journeying through the comic shop so he conceded and extended his hand. “May I have my awesome gift back at least?”

“Oh, yeah,” Tommy said, looming over him and turning past the page with Billy and Teddy, revealing a handful of blank ones. “Why are all these blank? Did you guys not finish?”

“No,” Jacob said. “It’s about memories. Past, present, and—“

“Future!” Isaac finished, dislodging from his hiding spot behind Teddy’s chair. “You have to put new pictures here as they get taken.”

Teddy touched the endless possibilities that could pack the pages. “But I don’t even have a camera,” he said.

A pale hand shot out and shut the scrapbook. “Less talking, more partying,” Tommy said, an especially bright sparkle in his eyes. “Right?”

And Teddy couldn’t find any reason to refute that demand.

**~**

There will be a table at practice, crammed with all trinkets of a celebratory nature and wrapped gifts from his basketball teammates, his friends, and the Kaplan family—his family.

“Alright, everyone settle down,” Teddy’s coach will say. “I’m trying to take a picture here. Those of you not part of the family get your rear ends back over here.”

Teddy will shrug and laugh at the teammates making goofy faces at him from behind his coach. Kate and Cas will gesture for him to smile big while Eli will stand there with a faint quirk to his mouth.

Billy and Tommy will squeeze him in, their arms clasping him from either side as the two younger siblings wring themselves in front of them, with Mr. and Mrs. Kaplan taking up the rear until Teddy is the center of the affection.

Then they’ll smile, none brighter than Teddy’s, and the camera Tommy gifted him will flash.

And that will be how the cover of Teddy’s scrapbook found its perfect memory.

**-X-**


End file.
